I plumped for a Panasonic NV-GS17 just before my pre-season snow boarding trip. Bought a cheap one as:
a) it was my first DV camera, so I might not use it that much
b) in case I droped it down the mountain 😛
So far I've been very impressed with the footage from the camera. It handled the white balance well, coped with the cold extremely well, the stability stuff help a lot, and the LCD window didn't solarize at all. Colours are pretty good, and it handled low light .ok.
Well chuffed, so after a few more goes I might be tempted to move up to the fancier stuff that everyone else has🙂